UFQ Assault evening!

Last evening, I made time to layer up a quilt top that I'd like to finish this month!  I often talk with quilters who do their layering on the floor -- I've only done that once and don't like getting onto the quilt.  These days, I use an extra tall table and have developed a one person strategy.  So come along with me as I get it done.  Maybe it will give you a new perspective on this odious task! 

 

First, set up the table.  I used two tables years ago and discovered I always got a pleat where the two tables met -- so it's only one table.  The weight of the quilt holds itself smooth once you get it smooth.

 Second, find a good movie to watch while you work.

Third, Harry, get off the table!!

I have marked a small + in the center of my table and I use it to center the backing. 

I fold the backing into quarters with the right sides out and lay it on the table with the center at my mark. 

Now I can unfold it and it will be centered -- I also put a mark at the center of the backing to help me center the batting.

The batting is also folded into quarters.  I match it to the center mark on the backing.

I unfold the batting carefully so as to minimize wrinkling the backing.  You can clamp the backing firmly to a table but my table is too thick for the clamps.  Half the batting is unfolded in this picture and the metal yardstick is stabilizing the backing temporarily.

Once the batting is unfolded, I fold the quilt top in quarters with the wrong side out.  Once again it is centered on the first two layers and unfolded carefully.

I make a quick check on all four sides to make sure I have extra batting and backing.

I pin baste, but before beginning that, I place my hand at the center of the layers and give JUST THE BACKING a firm tug.  I move my hand a bit further and give the backing another tug and continue to work my way all along each side of the quilt until I've pulled any wrinkles out of the backing.  (Yes, I'm in my jammies.) 

Now I'm ready to start pinning! 

I place the pins every 3 to 4 inches in a grid and don't close ANY pins until the entire quilt is pinned.  If I close the pin as I put it into the quilt, I'll lift everything slightly and the backing will shift. 

Once the portion on the table has pins inserted (but not closed), I shift the quilt and bring up the next section.  Once again, I smooth out everything and tug the backing again before continuing to insert pins.  This quilt is 48" by 60" and it took about an hour to pin baste while I watched episode four of the Masterpiece version of Mansfield Park from the late 80's. 

Get off the quilt, Harry!!

I plan to quilt a simple equilateral grid in the body of the quilt and something swirly in the border.  Another UFQ assaulted!!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com

 

 

 

 

QCQAL Block #6 -- Churn Dash with Marti's Templates

The journey continues!!  The winner for the sixth block in the QCQAL over at Little Bunny Quilts is Churn Dash.  Alison provided instructions for 12" blocks -- one using four 6" blocks and the other for a single 12" block.  Since I definitely have too many oars out of the boat at this point, I chose to do the large 12" block rather than the four smaller ones.  For that size, I used B8 and B9.  It didn't take long to cut and so I also made another 6" block using B12 and B13. 

I fussy cut a square for the center -- still haven't used all the figures on the focus print!!

To cut the rectangles, I cut a strip 2 1/2" wide and used B8 to trim rectangles to the correct length for the block.

I chose not to use all the polka dot colors for the 12" block and arranged two warms (yellow and orange) and two cools (lavender and green) to balance the block visually.

For the 6" block, I went totally scrappy and used 8 different polka dots -- funky!!  Cutting and piecing both blocks only took an hour -- my kind of project!

Here's my gang of 12" blocks so far -- starting to think about what I'll use for the sashing -- it would be fun to use the coffee cup print with polka dot cornerstones, but I'm not sure I'll have enough of it left when I finish the rest of the blocks.

Here's the 6" blocks.  I might make a small quilt or I might put groups of four together to make three more 12" blocks so the quilt will be a bit larger.  The quilt is destined to be a donation to a child.

All but the first block (Sister's Choice) can be pieced with Set B -- did you notice that?  Pretty versatile template set and none of them are included in Volume 1 of Marti Michell's Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks which is a companion book for Sets A and B. 

 

Now let's talk about your vote over at Little Bunny Quilts.  I want to do CARD TRICKS, so let's all get out there and vote for it!!  Poor block has come in second in the last two polls. 

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sticky Fingers -- YUK!

Recently someone commented to me that they were surprised by my interest in EPP since I have always been such an enthusiastic machine piecer.  I told her EPP is like reading romance novels for me.  Two months ago I began to participate in a HEXY SWAP -- you can connect with the group here to read the rules and the monthly themes.  These are the motifs I assembled from my first batch.

The upper left one was missing a hexie and I haven't made the time to find a creative solution.  The color for May was "green" and the deadline for mailing my batch off crept up on me -- glad I only live one mailing day from Heather who coordinates it!!

Since the hexies are 1", I went to my 2 1/2" strip stash -- no problem finding what I need 98% of the time.  It's small and a bit messy, but I've made so many quilts out of it over the past 20 years -- it's a sourdough box -- leftovers go in and quilts come out.

All the batches I've received are glue-basted, but frankly I'm not a fan of that technique because I don't enjoy the sticky fingers part of the process -- YUK!!  I wonder if I whined about projects that required paste in grade school? 

But I really needed to mail mine off on Tuesday morning or I would miss the deadline, so just this once, I glued them (and endured the sticky fingers).  Because the deadline was tight, my tendency to make the process systematic kicked in automatically.  I laid out the first set of hexies wrong side up on a vinyl covered notebook that was at hand.

Then I placed a paper on each one.  I use Fiskars Extra Large Hexagon Punch to make my papers from all those little advertising cards that fall out of magazines and come in the mail.

After a couple clumsy attempts, I finally hit on gluing down every other side first.

And coming back for a second round to glue down the remaining three.

At this point, placing two fingers at each end of the seam being folded over helped me keep the corners tighter where the adjacent seams lap over each other -- really made my fingers sticky!  I'm not sure if it actually went faster, but it felt like a smoother process to me. 

Here they are being auditioned just for fun.

Stacked up and tacked together ready to mail!!  I made it! 

Turns out the notebook was a good work surface since I could clean it up with a quick wipe of a damp cloth and the glue washed off my fingers easily, too.  While I still prefer thread basting, the glue basting does have it's charms and I learned I can tolerant sticky fingers for a short time.

 

Linking up for WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced today!!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

QCQAL Block #5 with templates!!

I'm behind, no, I'm caught up!!  Intended to post this last week -- things got crazy and so it got delayed (along with a few other things).  The readers over at Little Bunny Quilts voted the most for Broken Dishes and not only is it a great scrap block, it's an easy block to cut and piece.

 

For a minute, I thought I would just do the 12" block.  But once I got started cutting, it wasn't going to take that much longer to make the 6" one, too -- though I did make it a slightly different layout as I didn't have the energy to cut 1" HST's.  Just needed one template for each block -- using Set B for the 12" block and Set A for the 6" block!

I layered 4 strips to cut 2 pairs of triangles -- bottom strip is right side up; second strip (background) is right side down; third strip (background) is right side up; and fourth strip is right side down. 

That way I don't have to match up anything -- just pick up a pair and stitch them together.

Soon they were stitched and pressed, ready to lay out for assembly.

I laid out the "4-patches" and then proceeded to chain piece them together.

By keeping the chain intact until after I've pressed, it save me some time getting the pairs to the next stitching step.

I only clip every other chain and keep the pairs attached -- helps me remember which side to stitch because I can stitch either side of the pairs, but only one side is right!!

Auditioning the final layout -- nope!! 

I like the balance of having the two warm colors (yellow & orange) in opposite corners of the blocks

I used Bonnie Hunter's little trick for pressing the center seams so no matter which way I turn a unit, the seams will be opposing where the units are joined.

And here's the 12" block -- once again I arranged the warm and cool colors to balance the block (in my opinion).  What's that?  The yellow got twisted -- good grief!  I'll probably fix it or it will make me crazy.

Working on this reminded me of a table runner I made years ago when teaching a color class.  It's one of my favorite pieces and is a permanent fixture on the side table in my dining room.  The objective of the exercise was to use as many prints as possible while maintaining a specific color scheme.  Can you tell what mine was?

Now I can link up to the QCQAL Block Party #5 and see what everyone else made and cross of one of my little goals for May!!

 

If you are headed for Quilt Market in Pittsburgh this weekend, I'll giving a 30 minute presentation during Schoolhouse on Thursday (1:20 p.m.) about my DVD workshop, Set-In Piecing Simplified and I'll be hanging out in the Michell Marketing booth most of the day on Friday!  Stop by and say "hello"!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UFQ's Assault Tactics

Welcome to my visitors from The Inbox Jaunt where Lori has been challenging us to use A Quilt Notebook to take control of our UFO's (or as I call them UFQ's) since the first of the year.   If you aren't aware of her series of "assignments", you can read all about them at The Inbox Jaunt as well as her wonderful FMQ (free motion quilting) tutorials which were what drew me to her blog originally.  She has graciously invited me to share some insight about UFQ's based on my experience (and I have lots of it!!)
Lori's assignment on Friday was to review our progress and she asked us how many UFQ’s we have – not sure I want to admit an exact number but it might convince you that when it comes to UFQ’s, I know my stuff?!?! 

Over the weekend I revisited my list, added a few more UFQ’s, and re-counted. . . . . . . (can you hear the quiet groaning . . . . it seems like I should be making more progress).  I’ve been dealing with UFQ’s since closing my shop, Erie Street Quilts in Willoughby, Ohio 9 years ago.  I’ve made steady progress as a once full shelf of the UFQ department in my sewing room has been given over to large fabric hunks because the UFQ's that lived there are finished (or gone)!!   One of the results of my progress has been to organize what I've learned about dealing with them into a four lesson home study course, UFQ ASSAULT TACTICS (and some pretty entertaining guild lecture programs).  This week, you have a chance to win a tuition free opportunity to participate in my program.  Read on!!

Hard to believe this is about 30 quilt tops -- the top shelf is big hunks of fabric -- the backing department!

Whenever I review my UFQ’s, I try to name the point at which I stopped working on a project – while I can’t always remember the “why” I can always see the stage at which I stopped.  I learned early on in my own quest that a list of these stopping points helps pinpoint recurring stumbling blocks giving one a better chance to gain control. 

Without a doubt, my biggest group of UFQ’s are tops ready to be quilted – and that in itself is a huge clue to my most common stumbling block.  As a teacher, I feel it’s important to do the majority of my own quilting so I can help my students with that aspect of making a quilt.  But for a long time I’ve justified not moving past this point of making a quilt because as a teacher, a quilt top is easier to haul around than a completed quilt.  (Two attitudes that don’t exactly complement each other, do they?)

Detail of a piece I finished with "big stitch" hand quilting -- now one of my favorite ways to "get it done".

There are 40 quilt tops on my list of tops ready to quilt (TRQ’s?) – really?  (But there were 72 in 2005.)  It was a productive exercise as I was able to thin out 5 tops to donate to charities – designating a reason to finish them will motivate me and some can be donated in an unfinished state.  37% of my TRQ’s have been made since I closed my shop in 2005 – I do much better these days at moving all the way through a quilt from beginning to end than I used to do.   I still have 17 tops that were made before 2005 – that’s getting pretty old. 

Lori’s advice in January to pull all our UFQ’s out and review them is a good suggestion but just getting them out isn’t enough.  To get fired up about old projects requires understanding why they aren’t finished already.  The reasons could be manifold – life interrupted your work flow, you didn’t enjoy the process as much as you thought you would, you hit a fabric blockade, you went back to work full-time, you got ill, and so on.

Finally off the shelf after about 25 years and proudly hanging by the back door!
 

If you make a comment on your list of UFQ’s about the point at which you stopped, it may reveal more than you expect.  Do you always seems to stop at the borders?  Are all the "clear color" projects finished tops or quilt and all the "muddy color" projects just heaps of pieces?  Both of those are true scenarios from my own experience and that of my students.  During the give and take of mentoring students through UFQ ASSAULT TACTICS, I can help quilters pick up on the subtle issues that keep us from finishing everything.

Here are some common issues (stumbling blocks) I’ve helped students through.

No time you say – 15 to 20 minutes a day of work amounts to 2 hours a week and that’s significant.
Not the skill you need – once again, 15 to 20 minutes a day of work on that skill specifically will yield marked results and in less time than you might think.  I machine quilt all my charity quilts because it improves my ability to design and execute machine quilting.  There’s more to developing skill than taking a class -- you have to do it often -- think practice the piano 30 minutes every day!!
Ran out of fabric – that is a creative challenge that will spur you on to step outside the box.  I ran out of fabric so many times in 2012 when I challenged myself to use a big hunk of my stash and still made some of the best quilts of my life (which I finished).  Now I look forward to running out of fabric!
I don’t like it anymore – then repurpose it.  Make it smaller – put an applique on it – chop it up and make a totebag or placemats.  Explore blogs and pinterest for fresh ideas. 
Not sure how to proceed -- asking questions of quilters who can do what you don’t seem to be able to do has been a good strategy for me.  I have a friend who moves through a quilt from start to finish most of the time.  She might have 3 or 4 unfinished projects at any one time (amazing?!).  Once I realized that the designing of the quilting was a stumbling block for me, I talked with her asking specific questions about how she approaches that part of the process.  Her answers gave me a completely different perspective and changed my approach completely to the design aspect of quilting a top.  Coupled with all the practice quilting I do on charity quilts, I now finish two dozen quilts a year. 

Detail of the BIG hand quilting project I finished this winter -- top made in early 1990's.  Yea!!!!

Knowing that a quilt with a purpose is more likely to get finished, I visit the “quilt top shelf” every time I want to give or donate a quilt before starting a new one.  Most of the time, there is a finished top sitting there waiting for a purpose and “ta-da” it gets finished.

Today my major goals as a quilt maker are to use all the best fabric in my stash (don’t want it to be a yard sale steal) and to have all the projects in my studio set into quilt tops with people’s names on them (so they aren’t yard sale steals either). 

I hope this helps you deal with some of the UFO's cluttering your life.

Mary Huey

Diamond Star Playtime Sew-Along - Step 6

How is your pile of stars growing?  I hope by now you have six to eight stars completed because it's time to put them up on your "work wall" and begin to make decisions about the direction your quilt is headed before doing more piecing.  You are going to become a designer!

There are two basic setting options for hexagonal blocks. 

The first group are "straight" settings where the star blocks only touch partially and there are open spaces that need to be filled in as you finish the top.  And I've been able to identify three variations -- there might be more. 

In the first one, the stars are stacked with the upper and lower edges touching.  On the right and left sides only the corners touch and there is a diamond shaped space to fill in.

In the second variation, the stars are oriented the same except that each row shifts to one side so the stars aren't stacked -- they are staggered.  There is still a space to be filled but now it is an equilateral triangle.

In the third variation, the stars are twisted so that instead of sitting on a flat side, they sit on a point.  The space that needs filled is a diamond but it lays horizontally rather than vertically.  As I look at this, we could also stagger this setting by shifting the center row up or down -- can you see that? 

And notice how different the stars look in the two orientations above -- that's one of the decisions you need to make -- which orientation do you prefer?

The other basic setting is a "honeycomb".  The hexagonal blocks are set edge-to-edge and staggered so there is no space between the blocks.  Each of the variations below represent a different orientation of the stars.  Can you see the difference?  Which do you prefer? 

Once you've chosen your preference for your blocks, we'll begin to discuss how to construct the fill-ins units needed and the fill-ins for the edges so they will be straight.

While you have your stars on the work wall, evaluate the colors you've used thus far.  I tend to keep repeating similar combinations so at this point I feel I need more green.  It's a gut feeling but since it's my feeling, I'm going with it!!  I plan to make at least two more blocks so I'll be able to accomplish that.  The mostly red/orange star really stands out, doesn't it?  It will be a natural focal point so I need to manage it's placement in the quilt top to control the focal point.  I'll move it around on the work wall until I'm happy with it's position. 

I really like the clean look of this group of stars so I'm leaning towards one of the honeycomb settings.  This color arrangement feels more balanced and I think that will be important to help maintain the clean look.  Notice that the stars with the gold print are opposite each other.  That loud red one is in the center.  If this is my final arrangement, I'll need two more stars for the upper right and lower left corners and they will need to complement one another. 

That's why I want you to get your stars up on the work wall.   If you leave them up for the coming week and look at them several times a day, the ideas will coalesce -- change what you don't like, emphasize what you do like.  Do you need to make a few more stars?

In my first 6-pointed star sampler (above), the edges of the blocks blur into the setting units and it's hard to see some of the stars -- that makes the piece interesting and it holds the attention of the viewer longer.

In the second one, I used the same background fabric for the first twelve stars.  When I put them up on my work wall, I loved the color palette, but it was too blah and choppy looking.  So I made more stars with different backgrounds to break things up a bit and create some interest.  The tumbling blocks floating through the quilt are part of the setting and I'll cover that along with other "filler" ideas in the next couple steps 

If you have a copy of Marti Michell's Volume 6, Six is for Hexagons -- look at some of the photos and ideas in that book.  And this is a link to my Pinterest board of ideas -- http://www.pinterest.com/huey0314/60-degree-diamonds/ -- check it out for inspiration, too!

So now it's your turn to experiment and audition.  Experiment with all the layouts covered above and see which one you like best.  Look at 6 pointed star quilts on Pinterest and Instagram for more ideas.  If I can be any help at this point, you can e-mail photos and questions directly to me as well -- maryhueyquilts@hotmail.com

Hope our weekend is pleasant everywhere and you can get out for a walk!!

Mary Huey

If you are having trouble finding the templates locally, you can order them directly from Marti!

http://frommarti.com